Everlast Fitness Flooring and ECORE International have discovered a way to not only recycle waste but to turn it into a valuable flooring system called Bounce.

According to Bo Barber, vice president of sales and marketing for ECORE, there are two different applications that resonate for Bounce. “One ideal application is in multi-purpose rooms within a gym, where there is a lot of cross training or group fitness like Pilates, yoga or Zumba.

However, a new genre of application for the company is sport courts, such as a basketball court or multi-purpose court.”

The whole process begins with the recycled rubber that has always defined ECORE, Barber said. Historically, the company’s most prominent waste stream has been rubber from tires, but the company now sources different types of rubber in order to get different performance attributes. “The kicker is our partnership with Nike. So we’re not only taking old tires but we’re taking old shoes. We have Nike grind incorporated into all of our rubber.”

Now, the company is able to take that recycled rubber and, using its own itstru technology, fuses it to a vinyl wear layer to give it enhanced properties. When applied in a fitness setting, the rubber underlayment in Bounce allows athletes to perform on a safer, quieter and more comfortable floor. “The floor is actually absorbing some of that abusive energy that would cause muscle fatigue and ligaments to be strained if you were planting on a real hard surface. What is really cool is it also returns that energy. It’s like being on a trampoline,” said Barber.

That energy return not only benefits the athlete but the performance of the floor itself. Essentially, explained Barber, when you put heavy weight on it, like that of bleacher blocks found in many gym settings, because the underlayment is rubber, the floor returns at 99.4 percent.

According to Barber, the unique thing about this product is that not only does it utilize postconsumer material but the waste itself is what becomes the value. “Most people, when you tell them not only are we recycling waste and putting it into our product but that the waste is what actually makes the product acoustically and ergonomically better, they say ‘there’s no way’ and we go ‘no, it’s true.’.”